Tag Archives: 2011

With all my posts on fun things like food and my online store, some of you may be forgetting what I’m majoring in at college. Well, to remind everyone, I’m studying Chemical Engineering at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Here are some photos of what I do when I’m at school.

So here we have the Reynolds experiment set-up. For the nerds out there, like me, you’d know that the Reynolds number defines the flow regime of a particular fluid. The Reynolds experiment was conducted by Osborne Reynolds in order to better define these flow regimes. What came about was a quantity that could define a particular flow as laminar or turbulent.

The task we were handed was to recreate the experiment and even incorporate another aspect of the flow of fluids to it. What that is my groupmates and I are unsure of as of the moment. For suggestions, comment away! I’m sure I’m not the only Chemical Engineering student on the web. We’re looking into hysteresis but are still unsure how to design our experiment around it.

Anyway, on to the photos!

My hardworking groupmates hard at work 🙂 And me, snapping away. Don’t worry this is just the preliminary checking stage. We were just looking to make sure everything worked. I will be helping out during the actual experiment.

Here we have our laboratory’s old old old old condenser. I don’t think anyone uses it anymore >.<

More pipes and things 🙂

Well, enough of the engineering stuff. I am also an avid football player, if you all recall. Though it’s been a while, I still get tingles whenever I’m on the field. Unfortunately, I was only on the field because I had to help officiate a tournament. I didn’t actually play 😦 But I did get to kick around the ball with my orgmates for a bit. My spikes really missed the mud and grass. Sigh. I wonder when I’ll be able to play again.

I was so jealous of everyone playing 😦 At least the whole tournament when without a hitch. Congratulations to the Eng’gSoccer heads, Kero and Noelyn! Everyone seemed happy. Special mention to Laya FC! Thanks for officiating.

In reference to my previous post, I found more pictures from the organizers.

I promise, I’ll be joining more bazaars in the future. And, I’ll be more prepared 🙂

Last Dec. 2-3, 2011 I took a deep breath and joined my first ever bazaar! It was the Christmas Wishes Bazaar held in The Bahay ng Alumni organized by U & Ur Events Management Specialists.

Needless to say, there were a lot of bumps and potholes along the way. I wasn’t able to make back my investment, sadly. Also, my supposed booth partner wasn’t able to make it so I had to shoulder their half. I didn’t think it was right to ask for their half if they didn’t use the space, though they offered. I’ll just charge it to experience.

Here’s what our booth looked like all set-up. That’s my boyfriend accompanying me and tirelessly supporting my online shop. He also has his own business. Check out —> DTS Marketing if you’re interested in starting your own foodcart business, looking for real estate or investing in an e-load business.

Day two, we found someone to share our booth with us. With so much space, it seemed a waste to just have it all to ourselves. Here’s our new booth-mate. They were selling cosmetics, bags, clothes, etc. The owner gave me tips on how to go about joining another bazaar. He said that I should sell everything and anything I could in order to get back the rental for the stall and make a profit. I’m noting that down for future endeavors.

Here’s my personal business card. We had them printed ourselves so if you’re looking for affordable and quality business cards, send me an email or comment here 🙂

I got to meet a lot of nice people during the bazaar. The sellers beside me were nice and I even found myself looking forward to the second day just to see them again. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get their contact details 😦

Next time I decide to join a bazaar, I’ll be more aggressive and plan my strategy better. As they say, learn from your mistakes. And while this experience wasn’t as fruitful as I’d hope, it was still a great thing to be part of.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kapitolyo and it’s burgeoning food scene, here’s a map to the small yet lively community where restaurants of all kinds are popping up.

Our first stop was Thai Dara located along East Capitol Drive, near the corner of San Francisco. My kuya was planning on treating us for dinner since he just got his first job this November. Thai Dara was walking distance from our house so we decided to check it out. Now, my family has been to Thailand so we had high hopes for the food here. We are all avid fans of Thai food.

We started off with the Tom Yum soup. I for one was disappointed with it. I was expecting a sweet, sour and spicy soup but this one was just spicy. My mom loved it, though, so I guess it depends on your taste.

One of my favorite dishes of the evening was the Pomelo Salad. Though it didn’t have a lot of veggies in it and the serving was quite small, I’d recommend Thai Dara first-timers to order it. It’s a great complement to the heavier dishes such as the Pad Thai and the Satay.

Next was the Pad Thai. My kuya and I loved their Pad Thai. It was a bit sweet but still didn’t lose it’s flavor. The noodles were also firm and not smushy. I can’t describe it but it’s one of the best Pad Thai’s I’ve tasted. If you’ve tasted Pad Thai from Thailand before, it’s almost 100% similar to the authentic dish. Though considered street food in Thailand, Pad Thai for me is one of the indicators of a good Thai restaurant.

The next dish was something new we haven’t tried before. It’s the Basil Chicken. Like it’s name suggests, it’s shredded chicken flavored with Basil. It’s a different taste than what you would expect from a chicken dish. The Basil flavor was strong without being overpowering. It’s has a sense of freshness in your mouth once you take a bite.

Another classic Thai dish, Pork Satay. The meat was really good. I’m very particular with the taste of the meat itself without the sauce. It was yummy but the peanut sauce was nothing special.

Our dessert was sticky rice with mango. Sorry for the blurry shot, I only had 10 seconds to snap a photo before my kuya and mom devoured everything. The rice was goooood. The consistency was great, not too sticky and not at all runny.

(Edit: Went back recently to Thai Dara for Mother’s Day and had Nom Tuk and Green Chicken Curry. I recommend both very much! Num Tok is a beef dish that is often described as a beef salad. It’s very good. The Chicken Curry was also delicious, creamy and just the right amount of spicy. Great dishes)

While the three of us were having dessert in Thai Dara, my dad and younger brother snuck off to CAB Cafe just across the street. They ordered a delicious Banana Cream Pie. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was already half-eaten. So much for the photo-op. Instead, let me tempt you with other cakes they had on display.

Here ends part one of the Kapitolyo food tour. I hope I gave you an idea of which restaurants to visit if you were ever in the neighborhood. Until next time!

Aww our last day in Singapore 😦 Sad sad. There was so many things I wanted to do! If only I could’ve gone exploring on my own. In the morning, we went along orchard road again to do some last minute shopping. We wanted to take the bunso out on a walking tour of Orchard road.

Here we are at Takashimaya Shopping Center. This mall is huge! There are like 3 malls within this one mall. It took up almost a whole block Orchard Rd. My brother and I got a bit tired so we goofed around while the parents went shopping.

I bet everyone who has been to Singapore knows this spot. It’s the basement of Takashimaya. Every time I’ve been here there’s been a huge sale right in this spot. Before, it was children’s toys. Now, it’s bags, shoes and belts – both for men and women.Here’s my cute brother again posing with some of Singapore’s most popular athletes.

On our way back, we headed to Cold Stone and had some before-lunch desserts. I got the apple pie ala mode and my brother made his own combination using chocolate.

The day went by way too quickly and we found ourselves waiting for our ride to the airport. Goodbye Concorde Hotel! While waiting, I got creative (read: crazy) with our camera’s close focus feature. I took photos of everything I could. I even snapped some of my arm where I could see the hairs and the tiny tiny creases. I didn’t post them though, you guys might find it too weird. 😛

Still went with the close focus in the airport. The flower shown above was actually found inside the airport. We got there too early so we had to wait for the counter to open. Below is a picture of the kids lining up way ahead of time, just to make certain we were first. Not to worry, they got paid in McDonald’s.

See all those people? Yup! All pinoys heading home.

After getting in, we quickly found a free (!) leg and foot reflexology massage contraption. I could’ve stayed there the whole time.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We boarded the plane and left for Manila, sweet Manila.

I hope I can go back to Singapore with my friends or my boyfriend next time. I felt like there was so much more to be seen and done. Time to start saving up I guess 🙂

Singapore Day 3! I apologize for not following up my posts sooner. College life has been sucking out all my energy. Time to load up on milk tea!

On a side note, I just found out yesterday that Moonleaf now has a branch in Kapitolyo! I live in Kapitolyo! I checked out the new branch and saw that it was walking distance from my house! Crazy! So many exclamation marks!

But seriously, if I don’t watch myself, I’m probably going to drown in milk tea. We have Cha Dao Tea Place (walking distance), Chatime (trike ride away) and now Moonleaf all within 5 minutes from where I live! It’s good to live in Kapitolyo. Other yummy places include Charlie’s, Thai Dara, Uncle Moe’s, Skew U, and many more. I’ll do a walking food tour of Kapitolyo some day and post my reviews of all the food places. And to think, Zagu used to be the only decent food/drink place in my area when I moved here a handful of years ago.

But I digress. Again, here’s my post for Singapore day 3! So, we decided to take a city tour of Singapore to see the sights and chillax. After the busy and wet day that was yesterday, we were all looking forward to a nice leisurely tour.

Our first stop was a chocolate shop. What’s with city tours and chocolate? Are they all trying to make me fat?

Then, we went around little India and visited their oldest Mosque. We also went by an electronics store that gave us great discounts! I was this close to an iPad 2 haha!

What’s a city tour without a visit to the Merlion? Here we are at the iconic statue.

Nothing too different from the first time I went to Singapore. The weather was a lot better this time, no crazy rain. The one place we did go to that I haven’t been to before was the Singapore Flyer. Much like the London Eye, it’s a huge ferris wheel that shows you the whole of Singapore. Get ready for a lot of aerial shots and vertigo-inducing pictures.

I got fascinated by all the ships. Look at all of them! There are swarms of ships waiting to dock.

Here we are, the crazy siblings. My kuya may be smiling but he was scared the entire time. He was practically sweating.

My favorite part of the view was the awesome football stadium near the water. Let’s zoom in.

Imagine playing in that field! I bet it would be awesome. Awesome, and a little scary. I wondered if they had nets to stop the balls from flying into the water. I would have loved to get to step on that grassy field. Awesome floating soccer field is awesome.We finished all these before lunch and took our bus back to the hotel for some food. After eating, my mom, my titas and I all went shopping on the famed Orchard road. Gucci, LV, Coach, Prada, Ferragamo, oh my! My mom and I outlasted the others and stayed while they took a cab back to Concorde. Our last stop was Forever 21, which had 4-5 floors! My goodness. We only got to the third floor before deciding to call it a day.

So, that ends day 3 of Singapore with family! Yay! Though we originally planned for a nice and simple day out, I ended up almost dead on the bed when we got back to the hotel. My uncles wanted to go to Clark Quay to join the Halloween celebrations and asked my brother and I to come along. We decided to stay in and abuse the warm, comfy beds at the hotel.

My family and I went to Singapore last Nov. 27-30, 2011. It wasn’t the same ole family vacay this time since there were 3 families traveling this time.

Once again we traveled by night so I didn’t take any pictures when we got there. Even before boarding the plane we had a mini-adventure.

My mom forgot to bring her credit card (the one she used to pay for all our tickets) and the check-in counter wouldn’t let us check in. We arrived at the airport at around 6pm but just got to the plane right before take-off (at around 7:30pm). So, a lesson to all travelers out there. Bring your credit card! Or pay in cash 🙂

So, let’s skip to day 2. The fam and I went to Universal studios via a cable car.

Last year, I went to Singapore and Universal Studios with my mom and her officemates. Unfortunately, the Battlestar Galactica ride was still under construction. I looked in awe at the twisting rails and the intersecting red and blue lines. We left there without me riding the beast that is the Cylon track. One year later (almost to the day), I came back and the ride was open. I wasted no time and rode the Cylon with my kuya before doing anything else.

Let me tell you, this was the best roller coaster ever. In my 22 years of riding on roller coasters (every chance I got), I have to say the Cylon line in the Battlestar Galactica ride trumps them all. By the end, I was so spent and my voice was so hoarse that you’d think a mass murderer chased me down Orchard Road. I was lucky enough to ride it 2x and each time was fantastic! I even got to ride the red line with my younger brother and it was a treat as well.

After riding all the rides, we decided to catch the showing of Waterworld. I had already seen it last year so I was a little jaded. The kids though (5 of them all 12 yrs old and below) would enjoy it. We ended up sitting in the Splash zone and well, we did get splashed. The opening warm-up for the show was to have these three guys randomly spraying/dumping water on to the audience. We were targeted since we had umbrella-shields up. We weren’t soaked, though so it was all good. Then, it began to rain. The main show area was open so it was dangerous for the actors to do stunts on the slippery platforms. What’s more, the pyrotechnics probably wouldn’t go off. The show was delayed an hour. Finally, the rain abated and they could begin. As the show started, one of the stunt guys got caught in his rappelling system and couldn’t get down. Talk about bad luck. The show got cancelled and we left.

We had to leave Universal earlier than I expected because it started to rain again and the kids with us were tired. So, we got picked up and our bus driver dropped up off at a nearby hawkers’ stalls. It was literally beside our hotel so we decided to have an afternoon snack.

I bought wanton soup and was surprised not to find noodles. :)) The food was delicious and so authentic. One of my favorites was the desserts. Pictures above was our favored dessert place. There were all sorts of iced-treats. Ice Kachang was my instant fave. Another one I tried was the Chim Chow w/ Longan (sort of like lychee and gulaman). If it weren’t for the threat of sore throat I’d probably have bought one dessert per meal.

Days one and two were both tiring and fulfilling at the same time. I remembered why I loved Singapore and why I loved to travel.

Here are some of our travel stats in case you were planning to go as well.

Hotel: Concorde Hotel (in the center of Orchard Rd, beside hawker stalls and above a foodcourt that has affordable meals from S$3-S$8)

NaNoWriMo keeps telling me to announce to the whole entire universe that I’m joining nanowrimo2011 just so I’d feel more pressure to finish, so I’d feel too embarrassed not to finish. So, here it is! Another declaration of my intention of writing like madwoman and winning NaNoWriMo.

Again, National Novel Writing Month is all about writing your first (or third or fourth) novel. In one month, we are tasked to write at least 50,000 words. That’s roughly 1,700 words a day. Such a feat! I’m nervous and excited and worried and everything. I can’t wait! 7 and some odd minutes before I have to start.

This is part of my journey back to who I am. For so long I’ve been just floating by. I blame it all on college. They say college is where you find yourself but unfortunately, it’s where I lost a little bit of me. Myca, the writer, kinda took a back seat to Myca the student or Myca the football player or Myca the what have you. Not anymore. I’m going back to what I love and writing makes my heart sing. Callie (from Grey’s Anatomy) said, “Is that what makes your heart sing?…If you love it do it… Don’t sleep, don’t eat. Just do this.” And yes, I’m doing it! And I don’t intend to sleep at all (eating is out of the question, I love eating too much harhar).

I’m also a Reader so in keeping with the theme of finding myself, I started reading again. It’s not that I ever stopped reading but this time, I won’t be reading textbooks or lab manuals anymore. I’m going back to the obsessive me who’ll be hoarding sci-fi/fantasy books like it’s armageddon. So, watch out for more book reviews here as well. I’m also a TV addict so expect show reviews too. More writing and more writing. It’s only the beginning!

I’m currently reading Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.

I hope that by November 30,2011 that I have a novel to share with everyone and hands not plagued with carpal tunnel.

I’ve loved to write since I can remember. It’s a part of me I’ll never outgrow. I remember writing on our MS-DOS computer (OA!). OK, maybe it was our Windows 95 one. There was even a time I remember trying to come up with a newsletter and the first news article was supposed to be about Princess Diana’s death.

I’ve come a long way from scratching out random sentences and making drafts. Here are some of the things I’ve been writing about recently:

P-3 stands for Progressive Pinoy Perspectives and it’s a crowd-sourced and curated source for everything pinoy. All its writers are Pilipino and we all write about anything under the sun. The site allows us to express our own viewpoints and share what’s been going on in our lives. Here are the articles I’ve written so far:

I’m also the Editor-in-Chief of my college’s official student publication.

BLOG

And of course this blog!

I’ve been a busy busy girl but I love every minute typing away at my computer (which is now a MacBook Pro in case any of you were wondering). This coming november I’m attempting NaNoWriMo (wrote about it here). I’ll blog here once in a while about my progress there. Fingers-crossed that I make it!